Template talk:CDNLatestStory
Template Upgrade Is there a reason why we shouldn't make this template generate the current month/year automatic (if no parameter was given)? --silverstrike 00:40, January 1, 2011 (UTC) :I wouldn't know. I'd ask Dammej, he designed the current system so maybe there's a reason he didn't have that put in to begin with. The lack of such a feature hasn't presented any problems, though. -- Commdor (Talk) 00:51, January 1, 2011 (UTC) ::I don't see any reason why this functionality was omitted (most likely, Dammej didn't think about adding it - we'll have to wait for his response). Automation is always best (in my opinion) and the less edits to the main page the better (also, just my opinion). --silverstrike 01:06, January 1, 2011 (UTC) :::Sorry for the tardy response, I just got internet turned on here today. :::So, the reason I didn't initially make the template auto-generate the month/year parameter has to do with the fact that stories from the next month aren't automatically created (i.e, A contributor, typically Commdor or FridgeRaider, transcribes them.) If the auto-generated month script ticks over to the next month (I have in mind a usage of the #time function here), and there's not currently a story transcribed there, it would be blank. On the front page, that would be A Bad Thing. At the time, I couldn't see an immediate solution to that predictable downtime, so I just left it as a manual task, since a once-a-month change that could easily be made as soon as the transcription was entered seemed preferable to anything being left blank. :::Having said that, I'm certainly open to suggestions on how to make it both automatic and foolproof. Did you have something in mind? Given that CDN will cease to be daily, though, I'm unsure if it would be worth the effort. -- Dammej (talk) 02:29, January 3, 2011 (UTC) ::::I was thinking the same thing. Until yesterday this would have been justified, but now I don't see the need. Another thing though, Dammej: could you set it up so that once we have the final CDN report for January, the main page will display a random report from across all the archives every time someone refreshes/revisits it (and this would need to be able to be turned off during the three weeks of new reports)? I just want to know if it's possible. I ran the idea by Spart and he didn't warm to it, but I'd like some way to keep the CDN section on the main page at least until ME3 is released. If this isn't possible or the community votes it down, it looks like we'll be removing or replacing the CDN section and putting it back up only during the other three weeks of reports, if that. -- Commdor (Talk) 03:07, January 3, 2011 (UTC) :::::Ah, thank you for bringing that up. I doubt I would have happened upon the discussion about it on SpartHawg's talk page. :P The answer is a "definite maybe." My brief search didn't turn up any "Random" function that could be used as part of the "explode" function which (currently) extracts the last entry from a month. I (or silverstrike, likely) could write a random number generator for use there, or we could mull on it a bit longer to see if there are ways to be more clever about it. I'm still largely unfamiliar with mediawiki and its limitations/features, so there may well be something that I'm missing. -- Dammej (talk) 05:26, January 3, 2011 (UTC)